Don't go where I can't follow
by lionheartedbookworm
Summary: I need to feel your hands upon my face. Philora


**"Wake up. Look me in the eyes again. I need to feel your hands upon my face."**

* * *

"You cannot do this." His voice was commanding and hard. She'd be lying if she didn't find it rather appealing.

But the time for such feelings was gone.

"I have to." She sighs, her small hands knitting together nervously. "I don't have any other choice."

"Yes you do, Aurora. We can run away, you can live." He grabs her hands and links them with his. She can feel his pulse, feel the desperation in his grip. "Please, my darling."

"I'm not a coward, Phillip. And neither are you. We cannot just run away and leave our people in her hands. They'll die. At least if I do this...there's a chance to save them."

"She'll kill you, Aurora." He whispers shakily, the strength in his voice slipping away. "Don't go where I can't follow." His voice was trembling. The usually easy, warm tone was now shaking and fearful. His brown gaze was wide as he studied her, drinking her in as if it was the last time he would ever see her.

And it probably would be.

"Don't come after me." She whispered. "You can't, Phillip. You have to go, be safe."

"Aurora, you cannot ask me to do this." He cupped her face in his hands, forcing her downcast eyes to look up into his. "I will not let you go to your death alone. You don't have to do this."

Tears she had been trying to hold back began to stream from her bluebell eyes. She couldn't imagine a life without him. They were meant to be married. Curses and dragons and a life of fear was not meant for them. They were supposed to be happy, to be free and laugh and have nothing to worry about but their love for each other. How could she die without having lived her life at his side? How could they be torn apart? He was her true love. How could they be ripped away from each other like this?

"I have to, Phillip. I have to save you. I have to save our people." Her lower lip quivered, but her voice was surprisingly steady. "I'm doing this for us." She whispered, her small hands coming to clutch at his upon her face.

Even though she was standing before him in all her finery, he could already feel her slipping away from him. Her warmth, her beauty, her grace, her spark. It was disappearing. She was fluttering away from him and he could not stop her. He could not cage her and force her to do anything. He never had been able to before. He never wanted to. Aurora didn't deserve that. She was so strong, stronger than him, he thought. She could have run away, could have left their people to their death. And yet she was willing to put her life on the line for them. For him.

"Promise me...promise me you won't come after me." A sharp pain entered his heart at her quiet plea. How the hell could he even promise such a thing? How could he leave her behind, knowing she could be dead? He wanted to shake Aurora, to cry and ask her how she could ask him that. She was his life, his love. He could feel her within him with every breath he took. When he closed his eyes, she was all he saw. He loved her with everything in him, until he ached from such a feeling.

He stared deeply into her eyes, his thumbs lovingly caressing her face. His Aurora. His strong, sweet, darling Aurora. He would save her. He would slay the dragon queen for her, and find her, and wake her. They would be happy, someday.

Phillip gently brushed a honey curl behind her ear. "I promise." He whispered, inhaling a deep breath of her flowery scent. He would not lose her. No thoughts of failure entered his mind. He would not fail. He would find her. Nothing would stop him. Nothing would stop true love.

* * *

Silence surrounded her. It chilled her bones and made her ache.

Resting on the pedestal where she had once laid, was her fallen prince.

Love is sacrifice. _Something you clearly don't know anything about._

Oh, if only she knew. If only the warrior girl understood how much her words cut Aurora.

In the end, her sacrifice had been in vain. Her family was gone. Her people were gone. Her land was destroyed. Her sacrifice had been in vain, no matter how hard she had tried.

His sacrifice had been the ultimate sacrifice. The ultimate sign of love.

"Forgive me, Phillip. Forgive me." The panic is gone. She no longer begs him to wake up, to meet her eyes, to hold her. She no longer screams, and her sobs are silenced. The pain is settling in. The dark, aching pain that rips through her heart.

He's gone.

"Don't go where I can't follow." She whispers, her sweet voice reduced to a low crackle.

Her lips ached. She had kissed him so much, tried to wake him. But it wasn't a curse her darling love was under. He was gone. He was never coming back.

She rested her cheek against his chest, desperately wishing to feel him breathe, feel his heart thumping away.

When she closed her eyes, she could see him. She could see the gentle curve of his boyish smile. She could see the warmth and love in his clear brown eyes. She could smell the musk of his skin in the crook of his neck, where she so loved to tuck herself. She could hear his laugh, feel his hands curl around her gently.

But never again.

She touched his hands, arranging them carefully over his middle just as hers had. The warmth was gone. His hands were clammy, and unlike how he had once been.

The warrior girl carefully handed Aurora the small pouch that contained the talisman where his soul supposedly was kept.

Aurora wiped her tears and laced the small bag against her hip.

He would never leave her. Even now, she could feel him.

He had gone where she could not follow.

But no matter what, her love for him would burn on forever. He was part of her. She could feel him behind her eyes, feel the warmth that he once thrived on. The warmth she had depended on. It was like he flowed through her, even still.

Her sun, her warmth, her air.


End file.
